Finely Sliced: Brendan Jenkins on His Musical and Film Influences

Brendan> Mine has definitely not been straight forward, I was always a massive film fan but felt the film industry was so far out of reach. But while studying Fine Art at university in Australia, I was introduced to Final Cut Pro and became instantly obsessed. I spent the rest of my art degree making short films, reading filmmaking books and hassling the film school next door for cameras to borrow. My world opened up after graduation when I was hired as an assistant editor on Happy Feet 2, directed by George Miller. I spent a lot of time as onset editor stage sitting next to George on the motion capture stage, doing rough scene assembles of the motion capture performance. He’s an incredible storyteller and I was like a sponge listening to him. I continued to constantly create in my spare time - cutting music videos, short films and anything else I could get my hands on, which mainly happened all hours of the night. Following HF2, I was sent to the sandy deserts of Namibia where I was on the editorial frontline for George’s next film, Mad Max: Fury Road. Taking on the task of processing hundreds of hours of footage. Dusting myself off I sought out new creative challenges, and this, like a lot of Aussies, led me to London. Long story short, for the last 9 years tenthree has been my creative home.

Brendan> Rushes can vary between rigidly storyboarded and free flowing so I always like to stay a little flexible and take any opportunity to adapt my workflow. After my initial select, I’ll do a quick intuitive assemble to get the thread of the story down and feel out the tone. This then leads me into a tighter select. Of course, it’s always important to communicate with the director before getting started. I’ll chat to them and get their thoughts and ideas.

Brendan> You can read a million books on the theory of editing but you learn it all in the cutting room. The more jobs you do, the more you start to understand what’s important - what do I feel when I watch it back, how do I think the audience will respond to humour, narrative or contextually does it actually make sense. An objective pair of fresh eyes over the edit always helps me re-set my perspective as well, as you can get a bit lost in the process.

Brendan> This is important for sure. And even more so when you’re restricted by specific broadcast lengths. That’s a skill I’m constantly refining. To tell the story in the clearest and most precise way means that every shot must earn its place in the edit. The reality is that filmmaking is very subjective, and in advertising there are many agendas to consider. You will always receive feedback, and sometimes it may initially feel that it goes against the value of the story you’ve been trying to tell.

Brendan> I’ve always had a big love for music, and seem to be surrounded by musicians in my life. And definitely sway toward using music to either cut with or just play in the background while I work. But I also often hit the mute button while reviewing to get a sense of the visual rhythm, as in the relationship between flow, performance, and action.

For music videos, it can feel natural and rhythmic to cut to the beat and tempo of the track. An alternate approach that Joao Retorta and I had for Prospa ‘Prayer’ is to invert this idea. We had fast montage leading up to the music drop and then at the height of the chorus where you’d expect the cuts to follow the tempo of the music, we cut to long drawn-out shots, allowing the audience to feel the music and rhythm within the performance.

Brendan> I love working on jobs that are quite post heavy. I try to do as much rough vfx in the offline stage as possible. A fun project I recently worked on was for Carlsberg, directed by Martin Aaumund. The protagonist has a sip of beer, then proceeds to fall through an imaginary world representing the different flavours of the beer. The actor was filmed on green  screen and most of the world he falls through is 3D animation. We worked hard on timing, animating the motion and scale of the actor. Using the storyboards as background plates, I comped in as many elements as I could to tell the story and give a visual guide of the action that will be created in post. In circumstances like this, that require a lot of imagination, I always find that a decent sound bed is very helpful to get a sense of pace and rhythm.

Brendan> An ideal time in the edit suite is working hard but also having some good D&M’s on life and finding the ‘same page’ in mood, image and tone.

There’s always going to be conflicting ideas and opinions in such a subjective and personal space. Directors are so close to a job as they’ve lived and envisioned every single frame whilst the editor comes in with a fresh vision. But both sides come with an advantage, it’s within the creative discussions and debates that lead to greater ideas.

Brendan> Good question. You can never have enough footage. But there is definitely argument for quality over quantity. So I’ll take middle of the road on this one.

Brendan> For this year, whether they are a set of original films or cutdowns, there seems to be a lot of 15sec versions bouncing around.

Brendan> Aside from all the big influential editors from cinema, I have to mention a recent film edit that impressed me - Everything, Everywhere, All At Once edited by Paul Rogers. I went into the cinema totally cold on what I was about to experience. Blew my mind. It’s proof that you can create something that is heavily stylised and still retain a strong story with hard hitting drama. And hats off to Paul , who apparently cut this film in his living room during lockdown. 

Brendan> I’ve recently signed with Uppercut in the US. Having already gone across for 2 projects, I’m looking forward to working and learning more from the US market.

Brendan> Creative transitions such as crash zooms and whips, in camera trickery and mix media is prevalent. Shooting on film is still popular which makes me happy.

Brendan> Cut everything and anything. Not every job will end up on your reel, but you’ll still learn from each one. It’s a craft that takes time to learn, so trust that the more you do it - the better you’ll be.